


Silent Night

by Ninja_Librarian



Series: Shidgemas 2018 [6]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Baby's First Christmas, Big sis is worried about little sis's first Christmas, But no Season 8 spoilers, Christmas Eve, Christmas Fluff, Day 5: Cocoa/Peppermint, Domestic, F/M, Fluffy, Married Shidge, Post canon, Shidgemas 2018, You may want some tissues because I can't get through reading this without tearing up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2018-12-20
Packaged: 2019-09-23 11:32:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17079551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ninja_Librarian/pseuds/Ninja_Librarian
Summary: Shidgemas Day 5: Cocoa/PeppermintIt's Aurora's first Christmas Eve, and her older siblings are all excited to celebrate! But Skylar has some worries. Nothing Shiro's special Christmas Eve hot cocoa can't fix, though, right?





	Silent Night

“Mom, can I give Rory a candy-cane?” Hikaru asked.

It was Christmas Eve in the Holt-Shirogane household, and it was Aurora’s first Christmas, having joined the family only three months before when Pidge and Shiro adopted her after a natural disaster on her home planet left her orphaned. Currently, Shiro, Pidge, Hoshi, Hikaru, Skylar and Aurora sat around the table with both sets of grandparents, enjoying the last remnants of the kids’ Baba’s Christmas cake.

“Yeah, she hasn’t had one yet!” Hoshi exclaimed. “Do you think she’d like it?”

“I don’t know if she’d like it, but we can find out,” Pidge said, gently wiping frosting off Aurora’s face with a napkin. “But I’d prefer you get one of those soft peppermint sticks. I don’t know if she’d bite down on it and hurt herself on the sharp shards of the candy cane.”

The twins rushed from the dinner table, rushing into the kitchen, making Colleen chuckle.

“I remember your first Christmas, Katie,” She said. “Matt didn’t understand that you weren’t quite big enough for his favorite treats to share. He really wanted you to enjoy them, too.”

“Yes, which was cute until he tried to give her hot chocolate,” Sam added, leaning his elbows on the table some. “Fortunately he was still young enough that we didn’t give him hot chocolate that was actually too hot.”

“But not, unfortunately, before he completely ruined the mostly white dress we had put you in for pictures,” Colleen said with a sigh.

Pidge laughed. “Yeah, which is why all of the pictures of my first Christmas are of me in those elf pajamas.”

Hikaru and Hoshi returned with the box of peppermint sticks, and Hikaru plucked one out of the box, holding it out to Aurora. The two-year-old’s cherubic lips frowned and she looked skeptically at the stick and her brother.

“You’re going to have to show her that it’s food,” Shiro encouraged Hikaru.

Hikaru withdrew the offer of the peppermint stick, and instead began to suck on the candy. Aurora watched him curiously for a moment, then Hoshi plucked out two more sticks, one for herself and one to offer Aurora again. This time, Aurora accepted the candy.

Aurora’s race was deer-like in appearance and physiology, and the diet was similar, so she largely ate bread and cereal, along with fruits and vegetables. It was always interesting to watch her with new foods to see what she liked and didn’t like, especially since she was still too young to develop language skills in the language of her home planet let alone English in order to voice her preferences.

Tentatively, Aurora licked the candy stick. Her eyes got wide and she started licking it more, slowly and cautiously putting more in her mouth, alternatively sucking and lightly gnawing.

“Aw, she likes it!” Shiro’s mother gushed.

Shiro tore his eyes away from Aurora enjoying the new treat to look at Pidge, but saw past her to see Skylar sitting quietly and frowning.

Shiro tried hard not to sigh and frown. He and Pidge had been worried about this, one of the kids feeling left out or ignored in favor of Aurora. Especially the recently usurped youngest, Skylar.

Some one-on-one time with Daddy was definitely necessary, and he knew that Daddy’s Girl Skylar would perk right up at the thought.

“Hey, Sky,” Shiro said, standing up from the table, grabbing dishes. “Why don’t you and I go to the kitchen and make our super special Christmas Eve hot cocoa?”

Christmas Eve hot cocoa was special for the family, as it was one of their traditions. On Christmas Eve, they’d gather in the living room with full mugs and sip the cocoa and watch _A Charlie Brown Christmas_ , and then Shiro would read aloud _Twas the Night Before Christmas_ before the kids were tucked into bed. It was an easy treat to make, and everyone personalized it in some way. Hoshi loved whipped cream and pink sprinkles on hers, while Hikaru stuffed as many marshmallows as possible into his mug and Skylar loved both whipped cream and marshmallows but put caramel sauce on top instead of sprinkles; Pidge usually stirred in a bit of peanut butter, while Shiro stuck a peppermint stick in his mug.

Skylar looked up and nodded, hopping down from the table.

He caught Pidge’s eye, and she gave him a nod that said that she understood what was going on.

Shiro set the dishes down in the sink and went to get the hot chocolate pot. “Sky, will you get out the milk and the pot please? I’ll get down the cocoa powder and sugar.”

Skylar quietly did as she was asked. Shiro helped her measure and pour in ingredients, taking turns stirring. But the more Shiro watched his daughter he realized something was still wrong by the way her eyebrows were furrowed and her lower lip trembled ever so slightly, her eyes blinking quickly and sniffling slightly.

“Hey, Skylar?” He said softly. “Are you alright? You know if something is wrong or if you feel sad or worried about anything, you can always tell me and Mommy, right?”

Skylar was quiet, stirring the cocoa, then she turned to Shiro with big teary eyes.

“It’s Aurora,” She said. “She hasn’t been on Earth for very long.”

“That’s right,” Shiro said, internally panicking. Even though he knew there was a chance that this was jealousy and feeling left out, he didn’t really know what the best thing to say or do was. Who let him be a parent? It was bad enough to be Space Dad of Voltron and people thought he should be in charge when ninety-nine percent of the time he didn’t know what he was doing… “Sweetie, I understand that—”

But Skylar wasn’t finished.

“Daddy,” Skylar whimpered. “Aurora hasn’t been on Earth long, and it is Christmas, and even though we sent Santa a letter for Aurora, he might have forgotten to add her to the Nice List ‘cause she’s only been here for a few months. And if he forgot, then Santa’s not going to bring her presents. What happens if Aurora doesn’t get any presents? It’s her first Christmas, she needs presents!”

By now, Skylar was full on sobbing and Shiro quickly turned off the stove to hug her, picking her up and carrying her into the living room, sitting down on the couch with her in his lap.

“Skylar, sweetie,” He crooned, kissing her forehead. “Aurora’s going to have presents. I promise you. Santa hasn’t forgotten her. He keeps track of all the good little boys and girls across the Universe.”

“But Aurora’s home planet doesn’t celebrate Christmas,” Skylar said, sniffling and rubbing her eyes. “So Santa wouldn’t go there.”

“That still doesn’t mean that Santa doesn’t know that she’s a very good girl,” Shiro assured her.

Skylar took one long, deep sniffling inhale and she looked Shiro in the eye and declared, “If Santa forgets to bring presents for Aurora, I’ll share my presents with her. Because I’m a big sister now and that’s what big sisters do.”

She said it with such precise decision and passion that for a moment he wondered if she’d been hanging around with Aunty Allura too much. But at the same time, his heart swelled with pride and love for his daughter.

“Skylar,” Shiro said, wiping away tears from her cheeks with his flesh hand. “I’m very, very proud of you for saying that. And I know you’d do it, because you have such a big heart and love your sister very much. But I promise you, Aurora won’t be forgotten. Not by Santa, and not by anyone else. You know how Mommy and I get you, Hikaru and Hoshi presents too, even though Santa brings you gifts?”

Skylar nodded, and Shiro had never been more grateful that he and Pidge had decided early on that not all of the presents underneath the tree would be from Santa.

“And you know Grandma and Grandpa and Baba and Jiji will give all of you presents, too. And so will Uncle Matt, and Uncle Shinji, and Aunt Mitsu, and Uncle Keith, and Aunt Allura, and Uncle Hunk, and Uncle Lance. I promise you, Aurora will get presents, because she has so many people who love her and know that she’s here. And they’re all happy that she is here, that we are able to take care of her and love her. Okay?”

“Okay,” Skylar whispered, rubbing her cheeks. Shiro pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

“Ready to go back to making hot cocoa?”

Skylar nodded and Shiro set her on her feet. They went back into the kitchen and Shiro turned the heat on the stove again. As Skylar started to stir the cocoa again, Shiro saw that Pidge was at the entryway to the kitchen, frowning in concern.

_I’ll tell you later,_ he mouthed. She nodded.

Both sets of grandparents left shortly after with lots of hugs and kisses and ‘See you tomorrows’, and it was time for family hot cocoa.

The mugs were prepared, as well as a sippy cup full of chocolate milk for Aurora as Shiro and Pidge agreed that it would be better for her—especially after Colleen and Sam’s story of misadventures in young children with hot chocolate. Shiro and Pidge sat side-by-side on the couch, Aurora in Pidge’s lap and Skylar in Shiro’s lap, Hoshi on Shiro’s side and Hikaru on Pidge’s.

Eyelids were already starting to get heavy by the end of the _Peanuts_ special, and Aurora was asleep by the end of _Twas the Night Before Christmas_. Pidge laid Aurora down in the crib in the master bedroom, then came back to help Shiro wrangle the other three into brushing their teeth and getting into bed.

Shiro pressed a kiss to Skylar’s head as he tucked her in. “Goodnight, Skylar.”

Skylar yawned but she got out, “Daddy?”

“Yes, darling?”

“You’re sure? Positively sure? About Santa?”

“Of course I’m sure. I swear on my word as a Paladin of Voltron.”

Skylar smiled. “Okay.”

Shiro left the room, finding Pidge in the master bedroom, already pulling presents out of their hiding places.

“What happened with Skylar earlier?” She whispered so as to not wake Aurora.

Shiro explained and Pidge blinked away tears. “Oh, my baby… My sweet, tender-hearted baby…”

Shiro pulled Pidge close, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “We’ve raised them right.”

Pidge chuckled and wiped her eyes. “You know how we joke about Hoshi becoming the next Red Paladin?”

“Because she’s an impulsive, sassy little diva and we have a jar set aside for future bail money for when she does something like street racing or grand theft auto?”

 “Well, yes, there is that, but what I was going to say was that Skylar would make a wonderful Yellow Paladin someday. She’s got the heart for it.”

“That she does.” Shiro grinned. “So what you’re saying is we need to have one more kid to have a full set of future Paladins of Voltron?

Pidge narrowed her eyes at him and punched him in the arm. “No. Not in the slightest. Now come on, Santa, you’ve got a chimney to climb.”

“Ho ho ho,” Shiro said, deepening his voice, before he started to grab gifts.

The following morning, the best moment was seeing Skylar’s face light up with joy not at the presents that bore her name, but at the ones for Aurora that had ‘Santa’ as the gift giver.

“Santa came!” Skylar exclaimed, beaming at her parents with shiny eyes, bringing over a gift for a still sleepy Aurora, who didn’t know exactly why she had a box shoved at her or why she was up so early. “Santa brought presents for Aurora!”

“That he did, Sky,” Shiro said, grinning. “Why don’t you show Aurora what to do?”

Pidge leaned her head against Shiro, his arm around her as they watched the kids unwrap gifts.

The magic of Christmas was alive and thriving in this house.

Or, perhaps, that was just all the love.

**Author's Note:**

> Bonus:
> 
>  
> 
> _“You know how we joke about Hoshi becoming the next Red Paladin?”_
> 
> _“Because she’s an impulsive, sassy little diva and we have a jar set aside for future bail money for when she does something like street racing or grand theft auto?”_
> 
> Across town, Keith lifted his head slightly, glancing about the room with a frown.
> 
> “What’s the matter?” Lance asked, looking up from the puzzle he and their kids were doing. “Are your Galra-senses tingling?”
> 
> “I felt like, somewhere in the universe, I was being subtly shaded.” Keith explained.
> 
> Lance just shrugged. “It was probably Shiro.”
> 
> Keith frowned, then nodded. “You’re probably right.”


End file.
